Final hearing for Daiichi-Zenotech case in Jan 2010

The year-long dispute between pharma major Daiichi Sankyo and the minority shareholders of Zenotech Laboratories over the open offer price is likely to come up for final hearing in the Supreme Court in January 2010.

Pursuant to the appeal filed by Daiichi Sankyo against the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) order before the Supreme Court of India, the matter was scheduled to come up for hearing on December 2, 2009.

"However, the matter did not come up for hearing on the said date and is now likely to come up for hearing in January, 2010," Zenotech said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The Japanese firm has appealed to the SC to put on hold the SAT order. SAT had asked Daiichi Sankyo to increase its open offer price for an additional 20 per cent stake in Zenotech to Rs 160 per share pursuant to a petition by one or more minority shareholders of Zenotech about the price of the offer.

In January 2009 Daiichi Sankyo had said it would launch the offer in March at a price of Rs 113.62 a piece. However, the offer got delayed on prolonged review by the regulators.

Daiichi Sankyo had bought a majority stake in India's generic drug maker Ranbaxy last year.

The open offer is mainly to meet the Indian regulatory norms which requires Daiichi to make a tender offer for Zenotech shares after buying the controlling stake in Ranbaxy.

Shares of Zenotech were trading at Rs 113.65, down 0.13 per cent in the late afternoon trade on the BSE.